Trump tried to avoid certifying financial disclosure as true

By Julie Bykowicz

Published
3:09 pm PDT, Saturday, May 20, 2017

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s attorneys initially wanted him to submit an updated financial disclosure without certifying the information as true, according to correspondence with the Office of Government Ethics.

Attorney Sheri Dillon said she saw no need for Trump to sign his 2016 personal financial disclosure because he is filing voluntarily this year. But Office of Government Ethics director Walter Shaub said his office would only work with Dillon if she agreed to follow the typical process of having Trump make the certification.

Trump led his family’s private company until becoming president, and even now maintains financial ties to it. He has avoided full transparency about his finances by breaking the long tradition of major-party political candidates making their tax returns public.

Trump has routinely pointed to his previous public financial disclosures to justify his billionaire status and to dismiss calls for him to provide more information to the public. The filings are self-reported, though, making the personal certification all the more important to show the president is attesting for their accuracy.

The documents indicate that after the office pushed back, Trump now to certify the information by mid-June. But his attorney’s effort to sidestep certification of his personal financial disclosure marks another departure from the norm. Each year, the office processes thousands of those forms, all of which are certified.

“This is not at all typical; in fact I’ve never heard of anyone trying this,” said Marilyn Glynn, an agency employee for 17 years before retiring in 2008. Her positions included acting director and general counsel. “It would be as unusual as not signing your taxes.”

The certification means that if a person knowingly included incorrect financial information, the Office of Government Ethics can seek a civil penalty such as a fine, or even make a referral to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution.

Glynn said the agency has indeed used those tools to enforce the integrity of certification.

The letters indicate Shaub and Dillon talked through the importance of Trump presenting true information and signing off on it as such. The Office of Government Ethics typically works with federal employees and their representatives and also certifies the financial disclosures.

“As we discussed, OGE will provide this assistance on the condition that the President is committed to certifying that the contents of his report are true, complete and correct,” Shaub wrote in a May 10 letter. “When we met on April 27, 2017, you requested that he be excused from providing this certification.”

In her letter to Shaub, Dillon said the president will “sign and file” documents regarding his 2016 financials by mid-June — an indication that she agreed to the requirement.

Personal financial disclosures include an accounting of a person’s personal income, assets and liabilities.